I always send you depressing and
sensational articles - it's not by design.

We had our AGM on Thursday and
I gave my annual report in which I tried tofocus on at least some of the
positives, and for that reason I enclose it. Iwill put a couple of
explanations for the non-locals in bold and in bracketswhere I think it may
help.

We have had a great upsurge of activity here in Beatrice in the
last week -and in the province and the country generally. We have the
distinctimpression that "something is happening" but we are not sure what.
We arebeing provoked to react to situations, and when we do we are
quicklyarrested. A number of farmers, including a past President of the CFU
havespent a night or more in jail this week, on trumped up charges.

A
farmer just down the road and his wife have been barricaded in their
homesince Wednesday morning - they are unable to leave, and no one is
allowed toenter. We have managed to resupply them with provisions twice,
with the helpof the police. Our direct neighbour, Johan Muller on Silver Oak
farm and hismother Betty are beseiged right now and a noisy mob armed with
axes, about100 strong, have broken their fence down and surrounded the
house. Thefarmers from the district are all parked in small groups a km. or
two awayto react if any violence begins. I was out there but was sent home
because Icould be more use to them by keeping in touch with higher
authorities,(which I am doing) and trying to get a reaction. We have at last
managed toget the police to attend after a few hours, and they are there
now. All thatwe can hope for is that their presence will bring a semblance
of quiet tothe situation. They will never evict the invaders - that may take
days andwill be a political decision, and nothing to do with maintainence of
law andorder. When we have a drink on the reservoir wall and look towards
thesunset, the Mullers farm is the one with the tall gum trees on our right
(somany of you have done that with us) Extreme provocation. Very
unsettling.Horrible. We are aware that if we rush in, which we will if we
have to, wewill all be arrested at best, and held until they have extracted
maximummileage from the fact that the white farmers have attacked the
poorsettlers.

Back to my "positive" chairmans report. I hope it
paints a little bit of theother side of our lives here at the
moment.

Lots of love from us all
here.

Guy.

COMMERCIAL FARMERS UNIONMASHONALAND EAST
REGION

Chairman's Report to the Annual General Meeting held on Thursday
19th July2001, at Imire Game Park, In Marondera.

Welcome
guests.

As I did last year, I would like to begin by remembering and
honouring themembers of our farming community that we have lost.
Particularly and mostrecently, we remember Mick Taggart who was with us at
Bally Vaughn lastyear, and who contributed to his Farmers Association,
Mashonaland East andthis country that he loved, until his unexpected passing
in June. We alsoremember Tim Lock, Tielman Roos, Choppy Wilkes, and Steve
Terblans. Wouldyou stand and bow your heads for a moment in
respect.

Thank You.

I wrote this the day before yesterday, and
it's out of date now!

Last year in my report I focused on three main
issues.

Law and Order.

Viability.

And our
Community.

At the moment and in the environment that surrounds us it is
hard to thinkof anything beyond the first of them. In this province in
particular we areunder real assault at this time but I am happy to say that
in spite ofconsiderably more incidents on the ground, we are fortunate that
the levelof violence has been somewhat less than a year ago. We are thankful
forthat.

The tremendous resolve and courage that is out there, is
etched on yourfaces, and in your hearts, and is being tested to the very
limits. Our unityreally has been our strength, and it has stunned our
oppressors and earnedus respect and admiration around the world.

Our
community has been a feature in all of our deliberations, at F.A. Level,at
Branch and National level in the last year. We have worked hard atproducing
community plans, a programme greatly encouraged by CFU and WilliamHughes in
particular. And we have set up networks so that any of us in needare somehow
helped and nurtured by the community. The Farm Families Trust (Iam a
trustee) has grown and continues to offer support both financially andin the
form of counseling to our members whose problems we can identify.

We at
the FFT need your help to further identify farmers and their familieswho
really need a boost, because very often they are too proud to ask forhelp,
or don't recognise themselves that they should, or that they can
ask.Seminars on Stress Management are now being organised in communities
aroundthe country. We have been to Glendale. Next Friday we are going to
Masvingo,and in August I believe we will be in Macheke, Mazowe and Mvurwi.
Then inSeptember in Tengwe, Rusape and Odzi, with further requests to go to
Karoiand Marondera. The support from counselors, and professionals, both
fromIsland Hospice and in their individual capacities, has been wonderful.
Themessage that we are trying to get across is that it's actually allright
toadmit to feeling stressed, and it's also allright to seek help. Stress
canbe treated, but left alone it is a major contributor to financial
failure,breakup of marriages and families, sickness, and even premature
death. Andeven men are allowed to feel stress.

Bruce Brown has put a
tremendous amount of time and energy into hisprogramme, and criss crossed
the country, which he continues to do. Hiscommunity seminars have been an
enormous boost to morale everywhere he'sbeen. The self analysis by
communities of their strengths and weaknesses,the threats facing them, and
the opportunities, the actions that are open tothem, and constraints upon
them, have really helped us all to betterunderstand where we have come from,
where we are, and where we are going to.

We have worked equally hard at
cementing and improving the very real bondthat exists between the majority
of commercial farmers and their labour. Inspite of venomous rhetoric and
saturation coverage by the governmentcontrolled press, there is if anything
more communication and good will, andunderstanding between us, than there
was a year ago. Kerry Kay in her officeat CFU, coordinates not only the Aids
programme, but also Eyes for Africa,providing hundreds of free cateract
operations, and a programme todistribute maize meal and school fees to farm
labour where farmers have beenprevented from working and are trying to keep
their labour on in the face ofalmost impossible odds.

Ewan Roger and
his team at ALB are equally energetic, and have beeninstrumental in helping
to solve countless individual disputes on farms.These disputes inevitably
arise from misunderstandings and fears related tothe situation on the farms,
and they were invaluable in sorting out apotentially very nasty problem on
my own farm. Farmers must remember thatthey are there, that they have
enormous experience, and that they havestature in our farm workers
community. Please use them.

These are the things that are keeping the
fabric of our community intact. Asneighbours when we are faced with demands
and extortion, we support eachother. When we are faced with wanton
destruction or forced delays on ourfarms, the community comes in to help. It
is only with confidence in ourneighbours around us that we can plan for the
future, withstand thedisruption and torment of designations, pegging, work
stoppages, assaults onour labour, and sieges. Our unity of community and our
unity of purpose isour strength.

Those who would destroy us are
divided. Evidence of their split iseverywhere, and it will destroy
them.

We underwent a major trial earlier this year when it looked for a
ghastlyfew moments as if the farming community was about to be torn apart.
ThankGod it wasn't. We came out of our Special Congress in March with
absoluteunanimity, and a vote of complete confidence in our leadership, and
byimplication against the forces that would divide us. Your Council is
strongand unified, and communicating in a very real way - corridor politics
is afeature of the past as far as this Council is concerned, and that we see
asvery healthy. (Council consists of 19 councillors, seven representing the
7provinces, and the rest representing commodity organisations, being
maize,cattle, cotton, wheat etc. etc.)

"Farming Into the Future" was
born of the Special Congress. It is a documentwhich our leaders put every
ounce of their energy and intellect into. It hasbeen widely accepted in the
world at large as a milestone document, and ashaving the potential to break
a deadlock for the good of our industry andfuture generations, irrespective
of the politics. It in turn gave rise tothe ZJRI (Zimbawe Joint Resettlement
Initiative) initiative.

That is where we are today, and I want to place
on record my personalthanks, and the thanks of Mashonaland East to William
Hughes, Colin Cloete,Stoff Hawgood, Dave Connoly, Richard Tunmer and Malcolm
Vowles who havedrawn on every brain that they could find, and worked
incessantly to producethis initiative which may yet save our nation. Yes I
believe it could bethat important.

Undoubtably we will face setbacks,
delays and disappointments and it'spassage will not be easy.

We also
have the spectre of looming food shortages and we cannotunderestimate the
seriousness of that situation. No single factor is moredangerous, as has
been proved time and again throughout history, than hungrypeople. In her
book "Wild Swans", Jung Chang could have been writing aboutZimbabwe when she
described the events leading up to the disastrous famineof 1959. It was a
time in China when telling fantasies was practiced to anincredible degree.
Gullible ministers, agricultural scientists, reporters,and foreigners
believed that there was a food surplus, or said that they didin order to
ingratiate themselves to the Great Leader, Mao Tse Tung andfurther feed his
own fantasies. Self deception while deceiving othersgripped the nation, and
real information was withheld or fabricated, and itbecame difficult for
ordinary people to have any confidence in their ownexperience or knowledge
any more. It was easier to ignore reality, andsimply put one's faith in Mao,
and to go along with the lies. And stay outof trouble by so doing. The party
mouthpiece, the Peoples Daily, started adiscussion on how the nation should
cope with the problem of producing toomuch food. (Remember Made's (Made is
our minister of agriculture who until ashort while ago was predicting
absolutely absurd surplusses) claims aboutyields and production from
resettlement a few months ago?) When theinevitable disaster struck, it was
blamed on Kruschev and the Russians andon unprecedented natural calamities,
but the sad fact is that the truthbecame what the party dictated it to be. I
love Steve Pratt's quote toillustrate this story. It's from
Goethe:

To add to the
tinder box, our economy is in meltdown, and we face apresidential election
within the next eight months.

Our challenge as commercial farmers is very
clear to me and it is verysimple. At all costs we must survive on our farms,
intact, with our labourand our infrastructure, and be ready and willing to
be this nation's mainplayers in the rebuilding which inevitably follows
catastrophes such as weare experiencing. We in this room are absolutely key
to providing leadershipand cohesion in our districts. That is our
challenge.

There are many problems, beef and maize production being two
of them, but:

Last year we produced 250 000 tonnes of wheat, this year we
will produce 275000 tonnes.

The tobacco crop on the floors is
vintage, and the US Dollar price is good.

For many years we have appealed
for tobacco FCA's and that seems to behappening now.

Both Paprika and
Soyas are experiencing a boom in production.

3 500 farmers have
registered as members of the commercial farmers union andpaid their subs.
That was our target.

And every community in our province is determined to
withstand the stormsomehow.

Most of the structures which are critical
to us are intact. The CFU, the ZTA(Zimbabwe Tobacco Association), the
banking sector, the judiciary, theschools, the hospitals, the marketing
organisations, research institutions,our supply networks. Bruised but
intact. Communications is an area that hasleaped forward at an unbelievable
rate, and provided us with instant contactwith each other and the world at
large.

Amid the chaos there are many voices of reason, and we must listen
to thosecarefully, and stay attuned to what they are saying, and often draw
somehope and comfort from them.

It is viability that is perhaps the
biggest danger facing us. Last year Ibemoaned the fact that the costs of our
inputs were being calculated on thebasis of an exchange rate of up to 60:1
to the US$ whereas we were marketingour crops at the government enforced
exchange rate of 38:1, and that wasunsustainable. Today, the real rate of
exchange is in excess of 180:1, andwe are forced to market our crops at
55:1.(It is predicted by bankers thatwe will reach 400 to 1 by year end)
It's got worse! Banking policy remainsunclear and interference on the farms
is having a real financial impact onmany of us. The real war for many is on
the bottom line.

There is a first seminar coming up shortly at ART
(Agricultural ResearchTrust) farm on "survival economics" for farmers and I
am sure it will not bethe last of its sort. I think as farmers association
chairmen we have anincreasing responsibility to do everything we can to
provide financialguidance and help to our members, not necessarily directly,
but by helpingthem to know where and when to turn. There is good advice to
be had and goodand timely advice could save one of your members from
bankruptcy. It couldhelp to have interesting and helpful financial speakers
at F.A. Meetings,and open doors for your members that way.

Before I
end, I want to pay a special tribute to a very special group ofpeople, and
that is our wonderfully supportive women. Their courage andtheir
perseverance in the face of so much fear and instability is beyondeasy
description, but I know that books will be written about this chapterof our
history, and the main characters will be the women. I will mentiononly two
of the many: Kerry Kay - her patriotic commitment shows a rarebalance of
courage and compassion in the face of a malicious assault on herand her
family. I don't know how she does it. Sherry Dunn - her quietcourage as a
mother, and a Zimbabwean, and a farmer still, is all in theface of a loss
that would have defeated a lesser person. I salute them both,and all the
others that I have not mentioned by name.

How do we continue to weather
the storm? Only by continuing to display thespecial qualities and strengths
that you never knew you had, but that youhave shown so clearly over the last
year and a half. People are oftenworried about what they see as moral,
spiritual and emotional compromisesthat they are being forced to make, but
we walk a strange, hard anduntrodden path. Trust yourself and your
judgements, and above all be kind toyourself.

We have in our midst,
although he could not be here today, last year'sFarming Oscar winner - Pete
Lombard. What a worthy winner he was, and Iwould like to record the thanks
of all of us to him for all the work hecontinues to do in the province, for
us farmers, and to congratulate himunreservedly for achieving the award last
year.

And then I have so many people to thank for their endless time and
effortthat I will never manage to mention them all. At home today they are
outthere, on stand by, on radio duty, providing support and backup in
everydistrict - and farming in their spare time. My thanks and appreciation,
andadmiration go to every one of them.

But more specifically, I want
to thank our outgoing President Tim Henwoodfor two years of unwavering
leadership in the hardest of times, and to histwo Vice Presidents, Colin
Cloete and William Hughes for their tirelessefforts and devotion to the
cause. I will be very proud to work with them inthe year ahead.

To
the staff, led so ably by David, Jerry, Malcolm and Jan, another very
bigthank you for all that you do, and that's All with a capital
"A".

To Steve, well, what can I say. My right hand man - no, maybe that's
a badturn of phrase! My left hand man.(Steve lost his right arm in a
shootingaccident!) Steve is always there with his valuable support and
input. I turnto him for his advice and counsel almost every day, and I
greatly value it.We all do Steve, and thank you from me personally, and on
behalf of thewhole province. Thank you also for your humour which is always
close to thesurface, no matter what is going down - we really need it and
enjoy it.

Bernice has been a stalwart, and has managed about 800 farmers
and all theirproblems, moods and "bad days", and some of their good ones,
with a maturitythat belies her age. She has become very much part of our
community, with aspecial place in all of our hearts. She has been a
wonderful support toSteve and I, and never failed to give more than was
asked of her. Thank youBernice, and NO, you can't have three years off to go
to University. Whatare you going to learn there that you can't learn at CFU?
Seriously Bernice,we wish you all of the very very best with your future
plans - and stay intouch.

My deepest thanks to all of you here today,
and the few who couldn't makeit, for all that you do. You hold it all
together. In an era where someareas in the country are finding it more and
more difficult to find anyoneto do the jobs you are doing, it's a very big
thanks indeed that is calledfor.

Les, a particularly sincere thanks
to you for so willingly taking on thevice chair, when many in your position
would say "I've done my bit", havingalready spent years on Council
representing cattle producers.

To my wonderful and long-suffering wife
Vicky, and all my family, and to mymanagers and staff who never see me, you
are really amazing, and I thank youfrom the bottom of my heart for
everything.

A few small quotes to end on:

The first comes from a
man called Burke, who lived in the 18th century -"our patience will achieve
more than our force."...........He also spokeabout the need for Unity when
he said - "when bad men combine the good mustassociate, else they will fall
one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in acontemptible struggle."

The
final quote comes from the Bible - "Be not overcome of evil, butovercome
evil with good."

Herewith a compilation of emails from Kerry Kay. I think they, as all of
thefarmers under siege in Zimbabwe do, deserve our respect and
encouragement.I believe weneed to give more than just prayer support.
These are ordinary people whohave shown themselves to be remarkable under
pressure.

" Dear All,

The weekend before last, as you
know we were very involved with the drama of Ian Kay, his son David, Kim
Nilson and Trevor Steele, all hostage for a few days, and assaults on the
labour etc. Ian's wife Kerry, a wonderful and brave woman, and this
country's leading anti-AIDS activist - travels and speaks at fora worldwide
- was on the perifori throughtout the drama, staying with neighbours, wrote
a couple of paragraphs on the episodes that took place. I forward them for
your interest.

Love,

Guy. "

"The Police
stood by with AK'S and watched while our workers were being beaten, some
very old and also women. Kind regards, Kerry. "

" First
incident to place on record - affidavits from witnesses to
follow:-

Saturday 7th July, 2001 morning -

Mob gathered at
the yard gate and some of our workers on the inside of the fence by the
gate. A dark yellow Peugot 504 sedan (workers thought it may be a BMW but
I saw it through bino's and it looked like a Peugot) drove up to the
mob, TEMBO (recently left ZRP was a Sgt. in Traffic and then last
stationed at Macheke) gets out and dresses down a couple of Policemen for
not saluting him. Then shouts out some ZPF slogans at the mob and says
they mustn't hit MDC supporters but rather re-educate them. Also said
that Pres. RGM needs peoples support to help him. Then says he has the
power to kill people and proceeds to do 20 press-ups on his knuckles
and challenges the mob to a karate fight. Then asks if someone can go
and fetch Iain Kay (locked in his office at the yard at the time) as
he wanted "to eat his liver for breakfast". A youth volunteered but
half way to the office to fetch IK he goes back. Whereupon TEMBO tells
the youth to lie down on the ground and proceeds to beat him with a
thick stick which eventually broke. The Police then moved in to stop
him (note they help a squatter but prefer to stand and watch while our
workers are beaten). TEMBO then gets an axe and threatens the Police who
now show their AK's, whereupon TEMBO goes to his car and produces papers
that he says protects him in the event he should KILL someone - then gets
in his car and roars off.

Second incident - late Saturday
afternoon.

2 ZRP details walking around the perimeter of the farm yard
fence were approached by a young mob member who said "things are bad up at
the house" - the ZRP reply was " Has Kay fired his gun yet? Because if
he has that's what we want"

"Dearest All, just a quick note to
thank you for calls direct or indirect over the past few days. As always,
so much can be learned from what has happened and what we all experienced
will help deal with further such incidents. I will just relate a few
interesting and also heartwarming incidents. The headquarters of the war
vets stated openly that they knew what was happening on our farm because
they had organised it "because Kay is MDC". The Police stood by and
watched while our workers were beaten up. Douglas, one of our workers was
being beaten up outside the yard fence by the invaders on Friday night.
When the Police eventually arrived they said they'd spoken to the
"settlers" and they knew nothing about somebody being beaten up and left!
I called the Marvac Ambulance from our private hospital in M'dera and had
it on standby on the next door farm all weekend. Douglas and our guards
(the latter termed militia by the Police!) were uplifted the nextmorning
and taken to hospital. Douglas is still in Hospital. The response from
the farmers was indescribable - and the wives ferried food, coffee,
fire wood to all those standing by next to our farm. Although the
situation was very tense and contingency plans were made, the humour
prevailed all the way through. Radio and phone comms. were kept with Iain,
DAvid, Kim and Trevor. Kim is rather circumferentially challeged and eats
like a horse so our concern was would there be enough food to last the
days ahead. Kim apparently looked into our fridge and asked David "where
is the bloody food, doesn't your Mother feed you guys?!". One of the
many times I spoke to them via the radio, I asked Trevor if they had
enough food etc. He said they weren't feeling like eating but if they
got hungry they would start by eating Kim!! Then next would be Iain as
he was only "spare ribs"!! And so the humour prevailed throughout.
On Saturday evening I rang the Peterhouse school Chaplain, Father
Punshen and asked them to pray for all concerned at the Chapel service the
next morning. He said they would but he would like to do something more
than that. He asked if he could go and pray with the invaders at our
home. I warned him that they were very agressive and some were armed - he
said "well I've done a lot of praying in my life and to go out doing
something really practical would not really be a problem!". So Bruce and I
drove him to the rendevous point where about 80 farmers were standing by.
Father George said a short prayer with all of them - there were some
sceptical looks from some farmers when they saw me arrive with a Priest and
then when he said a prayer! I like to think that perhaps, in retrospect,
they will feel differently? Then a truck took Frth George to within
walking distance of the yard and he walked up to our house fence.
Unfortuneately he was searched by the "war vets" who treated him very
agressively and told him to push off. Although he did not achieve all he
wanted to, I am sure his very presence and courage might have rubbed off on
some of them. Yesterday, Monday, when we all came back to the house, to
clean, consolidate and move on, David (our eldest son) gave me the open
Bible and said "Mum, I read this Psalm to Dad, Kim and Trevor on
Saturday night when the tension was at its worst" it was Psalm 37. Our
maid, Mary, who with her little boy hid in our linen cupboard at various
times during the siege, said to me "Madam, while the boss, Devie, and I
were in the kitchen on Friday night (they were cut off from the other end
of the house by the invaders coming into our lounge) God was here. He was
here, chokwadi, He was here". Once again, He kept everyone safe and
strong. with love and big chinja's to you all, Kerry.

PS this is now
4 days later. While Iain was being "tried" in front of a kangaroo court on
Sunday morning by the local war vets and the Central Intel. Org. the main
war vet said "we are not like you Christians, we don't turn the other
cheek", and then another one said to Iain " it seems like you want to be
the next martyr" - veiled threats. Then yesterday Wed and today there are
6 squatters "patrolling" around our yard fence - just lurking and in so
doing hoping to intimidate our workers. Yesterday David gave them hell and
told them to get lost, then Iain did likewise today, asking them who they
were going to turn to when everyone was starving in a few months time. It
is a full scale psychological war, a process of wearing people down,
beating them physically and mentally into submission. In a communique from
the war vets assoc. in Hre. last year it said "Operation Get up and Go"
applied to the farmers where "they must be defeated physically and
psychologically and financially". We Zimbabweans will win this one as we
are coming from a position of truth "you cannot put truth on trial" - it is
just being able to stay the distance. Bread is now 40 dollars a loaf and
unemployment is around 65% - that does not make for a happy population.
Six people were killed in Epworth last weekend for "being MDC supporters",
their bodies are still in the mortuary, no PM's have been done and the
relatives have "not been allowed" to hold a memorial for them. Our
country is surrounded by prayer chains, groups are praying day in and day
out - it MUST have an effect. In fact it IS having an effect.

Harae - The enthusiastic public support which Andrew Young, a former United
States ambassador to the United Nations and the first black mayor of Atlanta, is
giving to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's controversial land grab may be
motivated by ambition to win a lucrative contract to lobby for Zimbabwe in the
US.

Young, who on Friday visited Mugabe for the second time in barely
two months, has publicly hailed Mugabe for handling the land question in
Zimbabwe better than the way the "British were handling the Northern Ireland
problem".

Young has called Mugabe a more legitimate head of state than
President George Bush, who won the US presidential election in controversial
circumstances.

Many analysts have dismissed Young's praise singing as
part of an effort to win over a lucrative contract to spruce up Zimbabwe's
battered image abroad.

Young has also offered to help mobilise
investment

The contract, worth a reported R20 million, was awarded to a
public relations consultancy owned by Herman Cohen, former US assistant
secretary of state for Africa, late last year.

However, sources say
Mugabe is disenchanted with Cohen's failure to help sell Zimbabwe's land
policies to US congressmen and to block the passage of the controversial
Zimbabwe Democracy Bill, which seeks to impose travel sanctions on Mugabe and
his officials for human rights abuses.

The controversial bill has since
been approved by a US senate foreign relations committee and is now due to be
presented to the full senate.

Analysts said statements attributed to
Young by state media reports yesterday all confirmed suspicions that Young was
trying to win over the business from Mugabe.

The state owned Herald
newspaper said Young had told Mugabe to take a lead in articulating his land
policies to the international community, and not to leave this important task to
"third parties".

Analysts interpreted this as a veiled attack on Cohen's
firm and a direct bid for the lucrative contract by Young, who is said to be
willing to negotiate direct meetings between Mugabe and US congressmen.

Young has also offered to help mobilise investment for Zimbabwe through
a Southern Africa Development Fund which he chairs.

It could not be
established at the time of going to press whether it is possible for the
Zimbabwe government to unilaterally terminate its contract with Cohen and give
it to someone else.

When news of Mugabe's deal with Cohen was published
last year it drew widespread condemnation from Zimbabweans who felt that the
Zimbabwean president was wasting resources needed to import scarce fuel and
electricity. - Foreign Service

Harare - President Robert Mugabe is tightening his
grip on key state institutions ahead of presidential elections due in April next
year.

Mugabe has appointed officials of unquestioned loyalty in the
army, the police and the judiciary in the past few months and this week to the
state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), which still enjoys a monopoly
over broadcasting.

The monopoly of radio especially, which reaches the
widest audience in Zimbabwe, gives the ruling Zanu-PF party an enormous
head-start in elections.

Mugabe has replaced five of the six
editors

The opposition's activities are rarely covered on either state
radio or television.

In the past few months, Mugabe has replaced five of
the six editors in the state-run Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers) stable, which
publishes both daily and weekly newspapers.

The latest victim was Steve
Mpofu, the editor of Zimpapers' second-largest daily newspaper, the Chronicle,
which is distributed largely in Zimbabwe's second largest city of Bulawayo. He
was fired last week without explanation.

Mugabe recently appointed Enoch
Kamushinda, a staunch ruling party supporter and successful businessman, to take
charge of the board of Zimpapers.

Munyaradzi Hwengwere, another Mugabe
loyalist, was this week moved from the president's office to take charge of the
Zimbabwe Broadcast Corporation's (ZBC) radio and television news department.

'Mugabe can't afford to take
chances'

Hwengwere, 32, was a presidential spokesperson before his
appointment to head the newly created Newsnet, a department at the ZBC. He holds
a political science degree and postgraduate qualifications in media studies.

His appointment has riled many experienced journalists at the ZBC who
felt sidelined by his appointment. Apart from his postgraduate media
qualifications, Hwengwere has never worked as a journalist.

His
appointment was, nonetheless, seen by many analysts as an obvious effort by
Mugabe to tighten his grip on the broadcast media ahead of the elections.

"Look, we are not talking about professionalism or media experience
here. Mugabe can't afford to take chances. That's why he needs someone from
within his office to take charge of the news business at the ZBC," said
Professor Masipula Sithole of the University of Zimbabwe in Harare.

Five
other obvious loyalists were recently appointed to other key positions in the
ZBC's sensitive news department.

Sithole said Mugabe wanted trusted and
malleable officials in strategic positions in the media ahead of the elections.
He had lost faith with those axed because they had been in charge of the ZBC
when the ruling party nearly lost parliamentary elections to the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change last year.

Clearly, Mugabe is not taking
anything for granted.

"Although all these people have done their best in
the past as Mugabe's henchmen, they seem to have not done enough to satisfy him.
They are now paying a price for Mugabe's desperation to remain in power," said
Lovemore Madhuku, an analyst at the University of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe also
stepped up efforts to politicise the army and the police this week. Reports said
all non-commissioned war veterans in both the army and the police had been
promoted at least one rank. Their salaries had also been doubled.

Constantine Chiwenga, an army commander, has been touring army barracks
urging soldiers to rally behind Mugabe for next year's elections. He was
reported to have promised all soldiers that new jobs in the army would be
reserved for their children.

Mugabe has also recently appointed seven
new judges with strong links to the ruling party to Zimbabwe's high court.

Mugabe is expected to confirm the appointment of Godfrey Chidyausiku as
chief justice soon. Chidyausiku has been acting chief justice since the
dismissal of white Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay in March.

He is also
expected to appoint another loyalist to the high court to replace Nicholas
MacNally, a white judge who retires at the end of this year.

But
analysts say even these measures will not keep Mugabe in power unless he also
addresses the bread-and-butter issues that are becoming critical to his country,
which is facing increasing shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency.

IS THIS WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ZIMBABWE'S CHILDREN AS MUGABE PUSHES THEM FURTHER INTO A LIFE OF STARVATION AND POVERTY?

150 child slaves died at sea, says
Obasanjo

July 19 2001 at 03:35PM

By D'Arcy Doran

Lagos - President Olusegun Obasanjo said 150 Nigerian
children died recently off the coast of west Africa on their way to Gabon to
work as slaves, an official for the president's office reported on Thursday.

Obasanjo spoke of the deaths during a meeting with the Nigerian Council
of Women Societies (NCWS) on Wednesday before leaving for the G8 summit in
Genoa, said Attah Esa, a media affairs co-ordinator who attended the meeting.

"The president said 150 children died on their way to Gabon where they
were to be used to sell nylon and water," Attah said. "A statement will be
coming later today."

'They were to be used to sell nylon and
water'

The president did not cite the source of his information, but
Esa said he may have learned of the deaths during a state visit to Gabon two
weeks ago.

Navy and port officials were not immediately available for
comment.

Unicef officials in Nigeria said Thursday's newspaper reports
were the first they had heard of the deaths.

"We've also been shocked by
the revelation and we are investigating it to find out where that information
came from," said Battiloi Warritay, Unicef's head of information in Nigeria.

The president also said a Nigerian woman who had been forced into
prostitution in the Netherlands was recently told she had to pay $50 000 (about
R412 500) to buy her freedom, the official said.

Poor families often give up their
children

"Women trafficking, child labour, child abuse and slavery
should be given the desired attention by all of us," the Vanguard quoted the
president as saying during the meeting.

West Africa's child slave trade
attracted international attention in April when United Nations officials found
at least a dozen child slaves aboard a Nigerian-owned ship in Benin.

Poor families in west and central Africa often give up their children
after being taken in by false promises that once the children begin working they
will send money home.

The children are forced to work under horrific
conditions on plantations or as domestic servants and are seldom heard from
again, children's rights groups say.

Thousands of children between the
ages of nine and 12 are thought to be working on plantations in Gabon and Ivory
Coast.

Hundreds of young Nigerian women are also working as prostitutes
in Europe, rights activists say.

Since the end of 15 years of military
dictatorship in Africa's most populous country in 1999, the elected government
has taken steps to tackle people trafficking, which US Secretary of State Colin
Powell described last week as "a modern-day form of slavery". - Reuters